Luthard

ON ST. LUTHARD, COUNT AND CONFESSOR,

AT CLEVES, IN A DUCHY OF LOWER GERMANY.

Toward the end of the ninth century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Luthard, count and confessor, at Cleves, in a duchy of lower Germany (St.)

BY J. P.

§ I. The illustrious family of the Saint; his parents; his memory among Writers, and their manifold anachronism.

[ ] Cleves is a province of lower Germany, formerly distinguished by the title of a county, now of a duchy, Concerning the Saint's illustrious lineage and it drew its name from its chief city of the same name, founded upon the slope (clivus) of a hill. That region in the ninth century brought forth and acknowledged as its lord St. Luthard — by some called Luithard, by a few, but erroneously, Lutgard — count, of whom we must treat on this day, and concerning whom Peter à Streithagen, canon of Heinsberg in the duchy of Jülich, sings thus in his quatrains, in Werner Teschenmacher, part 2 of the Annals of Cleves, page 192.

Stephen is an honour to Hungary, Louis to the French; Thou shinest, O Casimir, the glory of Sarmatia. Cleves is proud with the great piety of Luthard, And him whom she once honoured on earth she now honours in heaven.

But concerning the most illustrious stock of St. Luthard there is a unanimous consensus of the writers whom it has been possible to consult. All alike assert that he drew his origin from the blood of Charlemagne, and that, having received the county of Cleves from his forebears, he transmitted it after a long rule to his sons and grandsons. But when those same writers express years and similar chronological marks, they so confuse most things that you can scarcely, or not even scarcely, find anything from which to draw out the order of events and times.

[2] In the Acts, of which we shall give notice below, Luthard is called a renowned count, sprung from royal stock; is agreed among Writers, notice of whom his father is named Everard, his mother Bertha, his brother Berenger a bishop, but without any further explanation of the pedigree. We preserve in our Museum a book written in an old style and in the Belgic tongue, and published in print at Utrecht in the year 1480, which the author and editor Jan Veldenaer entitled Fasciculus temporum, inasmuch as into it he collected ancient chronicles — a Universal one from the beginning of the world, and particular ones of France, England, Brabant, Flanders, Holland, Guelders, Cleves, and so forth — and continued each of them down to his own age. The Chronicle of Cleves, which pertained to our purpose, is mutilated by one leaf, namely the three hundred and twenty-second, precisely there where without doubt the author had placed the distinct and ordered series of St. Luthard's ancestors; but what he has on folio 324 runs thus in Latin: Luthard, the first of this name, son of count Everard, presided as the tenth count of Cleves for XLIII years. He had to wife Bertha, daughter of the emperor Arnulph, of the Gallic stock. For Louis the Gaul, king of Germany, was the grandfather of this emperor Arnulph; and Charles the Third, emperor, was his paternal uncle. Of that wife Luthard begot two sons, of whom the one, called Baldwin, obtained the county after his Parent, the other, Rycfrid by name, was the father of Baldric of Cleves, the fifteenth bishop of Utrecht. That count Luthard with his lady Bertha his wife founded two colleges, the one of canons at Wissel in the county of Cleves, the other of canonesses at Neuss, in the year of the Lord DCCCXXXVIII; and Neuss at that time belonged to the duke of Cleves. Thus he; in which, however, there lurk certain chronological thorns, as will appear below.

[3] There is in our hands another manuscript Latin collection of the chronicles of Guelders, Jülich and Cleves, is given, but marked by no sign at what time or by whom it was made: in it the principal deeds of all the dukes and counts are described in genealogical order down to the year of Christ 1375, at which the collector closes his work with the following words: These things from the chronicles of Holland. Further, the things which we said were wanting in our copy of Veldenaer, regarding the ancestors of St. Luthard, are here entire, but in some measure at variance with Veldenaer's latter passage. Concerning the Saint's father it is written in this manner: Everhard, son of Baldwin (the seventh count) and brother of Louis (the eighth count), was the ninth count of Cleves and of Teisterbant. He presided for nine years, under the emperor Louis the Pious, a man most devoted to God and the Church, prudent, liberal and clement, to whom the most illustrious Bertha, daughter of Louis king of Bavaria and kinswoman of the great Charles, bore Luthard his successor, and Berengar bishop of Toul, men assuredly resplendent with all sanctity. He himself with his wife and sons founded and endowed two celebrated colleges of religious, one of men at Wissel near Kalkar, the other of noble virgins at Neuss, in the year of the Lord DCCCXXVI, under Gunther bishop of Cologne.

[4] and the words After many other things, not pertaining to the present matter, the following is read concerning Luthard: Luthard, tenth count of Cleves, administered the principality most excellently for forty-three years, a prince of all virtues and adorned with the most illustrious graces, and of such sanctity that he deserved to be noted in the catalogue of the Heavenly ones; to whom the most illustrious Bertha, daughter of the emperor Arnulph, bore Baldwin his successor, and Racfrid, count (of Twente, which word is omitted in the manuscript), the father of Baldric of Cleves, bishop of Utrecht. He, together with Alfrid, bishop of Hildesheim, his nephew, planted two congregations of religious, one of men at Salenstadt, the other of noble virgins at Essen, of which today the duke of Cleves is the protector and conservator; he also more speedily completed the college of Wissel, not yet finished by his parents, but begun, in which he was buried with the glory of miracles, together with his wife and children. From what is said here concerning the college of Wissel we understand in what sense in the preceding number he attributes its foundation to Eberhard, and in what sense Veldenaer, cited in number 2, ascribed the same to Luthard: but concerning that foundation and its epoch we shall treat more fully below; and as to what is reported concerning the founders of the monastery at Salenstadt and of the convent at Essen, we shall observe a few things in the notes to the Life, letter e. Further, from these words also — of which today the Duke of Cleves is the protector and conservator — we gather either that some things were added by our anonymous collector to the chronicles he cites, or that the said chronicles are later than the year 1375; since Cleves was not adorned with the title of a duchy before the year 1417, in which Adolph, son of Adolph of the Mark, count of Cleves, was created duke by the emperor Sigismund in the council of Constance; as, with others, Werner Teschenmacher testifies, part 2 of the Annals, page 256.

[5] are recited: The aforesaid Teschenmacher, page 189, treating of count Eberhard, hands down almost the same things as our anonymous collector, and confirms them by adducing an instrument which he says is hung up on a tablet in the church of Neuss, and which I here subjoin: In the year of Christ DCCCXXV, in the third Indiction, Eberhard the count and Bertha his wife, a noble matron, daughter of Louis duke of Bavaria, and also Luthard count of Cleves, and Berengar bishop of Toul, their sons, founded two congregations of churches, one at Wissel and the other at Neuss, of canons and canonesses, under Gunther archbishop of Cologne and Louis emperor of the Romans, and great-grandson of Charlemagne through Louis. I believe there is an instrument more ancient than those hitherto adduced, which Werner Titianus, canon regular of the monastery of St. Mary at Neuss, cites and recites in the Annals of Neuss, in Martène, volume 4 of the Collectio amplissima, column 537, at the year 864, in these words: Under this Gunther (archbishop of Cologne) and the emperor Louis, the collegiate church of Neuss is built, memorable for a long time for its society of canons and canoness-virgins, for the body of St. Quirinus, and for the frequent resort of many pilgrims. Concerning its first founders these things are found in sealed parchment letters, almost eaten away by age: "Everhard the count (he was of Cleves) and Bertha his wife, a noble matron of the stock of the great king Charles, and Luthard the count, and Berengar bishop of Toul, their sons, established two congregations, one at Wessel of canons, the other at Nussia of canons and canonesses."

[6] More ancient, I say, than the rest does that instrument appear to me, but by adding chronological marks nay, even to be preferred to all; not so much on account of the authority of Titianus, but especially because it lacks the chronological marks which the authors cited — and who probably used the same instrument — afterwards added, in my judgment against the reckonings of true chronology. For the years 825, which the tablet of Neuss just assigned, 826, which the anonymous writer cited in number 3, and 838, which Veldenaer mentioned in number 2, fix as the epoch of the founding of the college of Neuss, by no means agree with the episcopate of Gunther, under whom the foundation is asserted to have been made not only in the tablet of Neuss and in the manuscript Collection of our anonymous writer, but also in the Annals of Titianus, and in the lucubrations of others who treat somewhat more fully of the deeds of the pontiffs of Cologne. For according to the catalogue of the bishops of Cologne by Levold of Northof, prefixed to volume 2 of the Rerum Germanicarum of Heinrich Meibom; according to Gelenius, On the greatness of Colonia Agrippinensis; according to the brothers of Sainte-Marthe and others, Gunther, or, as others write, Guntharius, obtained the mitre of Cologne only about the year 851. No more do the years assigned agree with the reign of Louis, whom the little tablet of Neuss calls the great-grandson of Charlemagne; and by whom accordingly no other can be understood than Louis the second of that name, son of the emperor Lothair I, made partner of the empire about the year 849, and crowned emperor at Rome by Pope Leo IV about the year 850.

[7] You will say that the knot can be untied by laying down that the founding of the monastery or college was begun by count Eberhard about the year 825 or 826, they have wretchedly disturbed the order of events. and, when he was dead, was completed by his son Luthard, while Gunther sat as archbishop at Cologne, and Louis the second, the great-grandson of Charlemagne, reigned as emperor. But the very man who casts the first suspicion of such a distinction, our anonymous writer in number 4, blocks the way to it in number 3, where he openly joins the year 826 with the archiepiscopate of Gunther, saying: He (Eberhard) with his wife and sons founded and endowed two celebrated colleges of religious, one of men at Wissel near Kalkar, the other of noble virgins at Neuss, in the year of the Lord DCCCXXVI, under Gunther bishop of Cologne. But let us suppose for a moment that this author erred when he joined the episcopate of Gunther with the beginnings of the said colleges, whereas it was to be joined with their completion: another thing occurs to prevent our believing that those colleges were begun in the years noted by Eberhard with his wife Bertha and his sons Luthard and Berenger.

[8] For that all alike affirm that Bertha not only sprang from the stock of Charlemagne, The things which concerning the Saint's mother but also expressly call her the daughter of Louis, king or duke of Bavaria — our often-cited anonymous writer, the tablet of Neuss, Teschenmacher in the Annals, and Theodore Rhay in the book which he entitled Illustrious Souls of Jülich, Cleves, etc. But who, I pray, was that Louis, either duke or king of Bavaria, about those times? Not Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, who in the year 806 obtained the kingdom of Aquitaine, and had no right over Bavaria before the year 813, in which he was made by his father partner of the kingdom

or rather before the year 814, in which he began to reign alone, and in which same year, as we shall see in number XI, he set his son Lothair over Bavaria. Besides, I do not see what could have impelled our authors to distinguish Louis the Pious by the title of king or duke of Bavaria — which he nowhere else obtains — rather than by that of emperor, or at least of king of Aquitaine. Therefore another Louis must be sought as Bertha's father.

[9] and grandfather Of that name from the stock of the emperor Charlemagne there occurs none more ancient than Louis, son of Louis the Pious, to whom the title of duke or king of Bavaria could deservedly be ascribed, inasmuch as his father, when in the year 817 he had declared Lothair, his elder son, emperor, substituted him for that same Lothair in Bavaria and appointed him king. Hear Einhard in the Annals of Louis the Pious, in André du Chesne, volume 2 of the Writers of Gaul, page 261: He held an assembly at Aachen in the accustomed manner, in which he crowned his firstborn son Lothair, and constituted him partner of his name and of his empire: the rest, called kings, he set the one (Pippin) over Aquitaine, the other (Louis) over Bavaria. There exist various instruments in Karl Meichelbeck, volume 1 of the History of Freising, part 2, in which the same Louis, son of the emperor of like name, is written King in Bavaria, King of the Bavarians: afterwards, however, he was also called Louis the German, and Louis I king of Germany.

[10] they hand down, And indeed that he had a daughter by the name of Bertha ancient monuments testify, which John von Eckhart cites, volume 2 of the Commentaries on the affairs of Eastern France, pages 464, 614, 630 and elsewhere. Mention has also been made of the same Bertha among us, in volume III of September, in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of SS. Felix and Regula, martyrs, page 767. The Annals of Weingarten, published by Mabillon in the new edition of the Vetera analecta, page 368, refer Bertha's death to the year 877, at which they end, in these words: DCCCLXXVII. Bertha, daughter of king Louis, died. We have therefore a Bertha, daughter of Louis king of Bavaria; but whether she had Eberhard for husband, or Luthard and Berengar for sons, nay whether she was ever joined in matrimony, is very doubtful: since, as the aforesaid Eckhart proves, that same Bertha was appointed abbess in the monasteries of Zurich and Schwarzach in the place of her sister Hildegard, who died in the year 857 according to the cited Annals of Weingarten. Nevertheless this does not suffice for us to believe absolutely that she was never married; since it is established by many examples that to women, especially princesses, after the death of a husband or his withdrawal from the world, the government of monasteries was conferred; such examples we have in the very catalogue of the abbesses of the monastery of Zurich in Martin Crusius, part 2 of the Annals of Swabia, book 2, page 45, where the death of Hildegard is deferred to the year 860, that of Bertha to 881.

[11] are discussed, Let us therefore suppose for a moment that this Bertha, daughter of Louis the German, is she who in the instrument of the annalist of Neuss is called a Noble matron, of the stock of the great king Charles, but by others the daughter of Louis king of Bavaria, and is everywhere set down as the wife of Eberhard, count of Cleves. This being laid down, it is astonishing how far again our anonymous writer and all the rest have strayed here from the reckonings of true chronology, who fixed the epoch of the founding of the chapters of Wissel and Neuss in the years 825, 826 and 838! For that Louis, king of Bavaria, in the year 814 was still only a boy, as the biographer of the emperor Louis the Pious testifies, in the aforesaid du Chesne, page 296. In the same year also (814, in which after the death of Charlemagne he began to reign alone), he says, he sent two [] of his sons, Lothair into Bavaria, Pippin into Aquitaine, but the third, Louis, still remaining in his boyhood years, he kept with himself. Nay, that same king Louis, although in the year 817, as was said above, he was sent by his father into Bavaria, on account without doubt of the tenderness of his age, did not at first reign by himself, but through ministers designated for him by his father. The aforesaid Eckhart proves this, page 145, producing an instrument of the year 819, to which there subscribes as a witness Egilolf, tutor of the young Louis*. And this Louis, forsooth, a youth, is to have had in the year 825 or 826 a daughter who with her husband Eberhard and her sons Luthard and Berengar laid the foundations of two colleges; or in the year 838 to have had a grandson Luthard, who with his wife completed the said colleges, his parents being by then already dead.

[12] Finally, all these things being weighed, it remains for us to believe and it is judged that all must be placed later. that the beginnings of those colleges were laid only after the year 850, nay perhaps much later: for thus we shall be able to join with those same beginnings the times of Gunther or Guntharius the archbishop, who departed this life about the year 873; of Louis the second, emperor, who was the great-grandson of Charlemagne, and lived until the year 875; and of Bertha, if however Eberhard's wife was the daughter of Louis I king of Bavaria — which I should not dare to affirm for certain, both on account of what was said in number 10, and because those who assert that she was the daughter of the king or duke of Bavaria — our anonymous writer, the author of the tablet of Neuss, Teschenmacher and others — labour under manifest errors and anachronisms; whereas the manuscript instrument of Neuss, in my judgment older and better than all, simply calls her a matron of the stock of the great king Charles.

* two

§ II. The Saint's wife and children; other anachronisms of the writers here also.

[ ] The Saint's wife and children, The opinion of all the writers who have mentioned St. Luthard's wife is in accord, that her name likewise was Bertha or Berta, and that her father was the emperor Arnulph. We have given the words of Veldenaer in number 2, and of our anonymous writer in number 4. Werner Teschenmacher, whom Theodore Rhay followed, has this in the Annals, part 2, page 190: Concerning Luthard, tenth count of Cleves under the emperors Lothair, Louis II, Charles the Bald, and Louis III, Pighius writes that on account of his virtues, the purity and holiness of his life, he deserved to be adorned with an alliance with the stock of Charlemagne and with the imperial house, and to receive as wife Bertha, daughter of the emperor Arnulph, of whom he begot two sons, Baldwin or Baldric his successor, and Ricfrid count of Twente. Johannes Cuspinianus, in his book On the Cæsars and Roman emperors, notes these things concerning Arnulph: I have found also his daughter Bertha — but by which wife I do not know — whom Luthard, the first of that name, count of Cleves, son of Eberhard, took to wife, and by her he begot two sons, Baldwin II, the eleventh count of Cleves, and Richfrid, father of Waldric bishop of Utrecht. To Cuspinianus adhered Wolfgang Hunger in the genealogical table of Charlemagne which he inserted into his Annotations on the book of Cuspinianus, and in which, beginning from Charlemagne, through Louis the Pious, Louis I king of Bavaria, Carloman likewise king of Bavaria, and finally the emperor Arnulph, he descends to Bertha, and ends in her with the following words: Bertha, a daughter, it is unknown by which mother; she the wife of Luithard count of Cleves. This author names two wives of Arnulph, Agnes and Deytha or Luitgard, and Hieronymus Henninges does the same in his Theatrum genealogicum, and moreover reckons among the children of Arnulph and Luitgard Bertha, wife of Luthard count of Cleves.

[14] and the ancestors of his wife. If now we compare these things with what was reported in the preceding paragraph, it remains for us to say that Luthard, grandson of Louis king of Germany or Bavaria, had for wife the great-granddaughter of that same Louis, and thus we may lay down the descent of both from Charlemagne:

There appears here, I confess, a notable difference of age between Luthard and Bertha as spouses; but that is not unusual, especially where we may suspect that one who, having turned away from the pomp of the world and from marriage, had determined to devote himself to God alone, only after being broken by the long-continued prayers of his parents, who desired grandsons and heirs, and of the whole people, longing for lords out of the same family, turned his mind to taking a wife; even as the author of the rhythmical Life, and the poet Johannes Melas, of whom we must treat below, sang that it was done by St. Luthard; the former in these little verses:

Now to forsake his parents, nay to leave the world behind, And shut himself within a cloister, was his constant thought, That most valiant soldier of Christ, Luthard, most holy man, Burning to take upon him the most approved rule of the cloisters; To serve the Lord alone he longed with his inmost heart; But what he bears in mind he cannot fulfil, the Lord Hindering such things, and preparing others.

But the latter in this poem:

The Hero had resolved to live unwed, apart from marriage-beds, But subject and parent forbade his purpose; He is bidden, after the vows, to lead a wedded life Beyond the life of his dear parent, ruling the roofs of Cleves.

[15] So many difficulties again occur among the writers But I wonder once more how Veldenaer, when he wrote that Luthard's wife was the daughter of the emperor Arnulph, did not notice his errors in narrating other deeds: especially where he reported the chapters of Wissel and Neuss to have been founded by Luthard and Bertha about the year 838, since Arnulph's grandfather and Bertha's great-grandfather, Louis king of Germany, was still only a boy in the year 814, as we have shown in number XI; while Arnulph obtained the kingdom of Germany only about the year 887, and was crowned emperor about 896. Besides, when I consider these times of Arnulph, I find no way to set forth by any probable reasoning what Hermann Stangefol writes in book 2 of the Annals of the Westphalian Circle, and Teschenmacher and Rhay, praised several times, namely that St. Luthard departed this life in the year 881, after a rule over the county of Cleves of forty-four years, leaving by Bertha, daughter of Arnulph, two children, Baldwin or Baldric and Ricfrid; which Baldwin or Baldric, as Teschenmacher adds, was count of Cleves under the emperors Charles the Fat, Arnulph and Conrad I, and, when he had administered the province of Cleves for XXXVII years, expired in the year CMXVII.

[16] For in the first place, it appears to me exceedingly difficult to believe that Arnulph, who in the year 887 was substituted for Charles the Fat because by then not only the strength of the body but even the senses of the mind had fled from the latter, as the Annals of Metz and Regino report, should have had in the year 881 a grandson by a daughter, fit to administer the province of Cleves. Secondly, it is equally difficult to perceive how Luthard could have held the county of Cleves for 44 years, if he died in the year 881. For Teschenmacher and Rhay say indeed that his father Eberhard died in the year 835, and Stangefol in the year 837: but they do not prove it; and their opinion seems to us abundantly disproved by the things which in the preceding paragraph we brought forward and discussed, both concerning his wife — according to them the daughter of Louis king of Bavaria — and concerning the founding of the colleges of Neuss and Wissel, made by Eberhard under the archiepiscopate of Guntharius of Cologne and the reign of Louis II, and consequently after the year 850.

[17] Add that Teschenmacher himself overturns his own opinion and manifestly betrays his chronological errors in part 2 of the Annals, page 188; difficulties where first he hands down the following: But let us return to Baldwin (Eberhard's father). He, at the obsequies of Charles

the Great, celebrated in the city of Aachen in the year DCCCXIV, on the V of the Kalends of February, was present; then also he stoutly assisted Louis the Pious, stripped of the empire by his sons and thrust into custody at Successio (rather Suessio, that is Soissons), as Munster will have it, or at Compiègne, as Baronius, or at Aachen, as Beck; and he restored him, with many other princes, and especially Louis the Bavarian and Baldwin the Fleming, to his former liberty and to the imperial honour, and brought him back to Nijmegen; by whom on that account he was presented with Tubantia, commonly Twente. The same things our anonymous writer has, but he suppresses the year of Baldwin's death, which Teschenmacher notes in these words: He died after XVI years of rule, in the year of Christ DCCCXXII. Then, proceeding to Louis, Baldwin's elder son and successor, he says thus: But Louis, under the same emperor Louis the Pious the eighth count of Cleves, when he had presided for four or five years, … departed unmarried and without an heir in the year of Christ DCCCXXVII. Finally, after a few things interposed, he says: Eberhard succeeded his father Baldwin and his brother Louis, the ninth count of Cleves under Louis the Pious and Lothair his son. And having reported his deeds, he adds: Count Eberhard ruled the county of Cleves for nine years; he died in the year DCCCXXXV.

[18] Now observe how prettily the years noted fit together with what the annalist reported in the first place concerning Louis the Pious. and chronological errors, For according to the unanimous chronology of writers ancient and modern — and indeed of Teschenmacher himself, part 1, page 93 — Louis came into the power of his son Lothair only about the year 829 or 830, in which latter year an assembly was held at Nijmegen by the consent of both, and the emperor was restored to his former dignity. But when new disturbances arose meanwhile, Louis was seized a second time by Lothair and held in custody about the year 833, and in the year 834, chiefly at the instance of Louis king of Bavaria, and with the help among others of Pippin king of Aquitaine, he was released from captivity and recovered the empire. And so, if Baldwin of Cleves, Eberhard's father, was present at these events — as Teschenmacher asserts, confounding both captivities of Louis the Pious, and as Peter à Streithagen sings in the following poem:

Succeeding in turn to his snatched-away brother, Baldwin Stood by at thy obsequies, O Charlemagne; And when the sons pursued their father with war and arms, Moved by the imperial honour, he aided the Pious one.

— if, I say, Baldwin was present at these things, Teschenmacher could not, except by manifest errors, have designated the years of the counts of Cleves' deaths in the manner in which he did, and he ought to have deferred Baldwin's death at least to the year 835, that of Louis to 840, that of Eberhard to 849, and finally that of Luthard to 893.

[19] so that we can determine nothing about the time. From what has thus far been discussed the studious reader sufficiently perceives how confused is the chronology of the counts of Cleves of the ninth century and without doubt of the tenth also; the further investigation of which I leave to the more erudite writers of Cleves, if perchance among them there lie hidden instruments by which they may themselves escape from the most intricate labyrinth into which the cited Teschenmacher, our anonymous writer and others cast their reader, and may more distinctly assign how long the Saint presided over the county, or in about what year he departed to heaven; we meanwhile, being able to determine nothing, place him as broadly as possible in the ninth century, and proceed to what is ascertained concerning his cult.

§ III. His memory in the Fasti; his cult; the metrical Life to be given here.

[ ] His memory in the Fasti, Greven announces St. Luthard today in the Auctaria of the Martyrology of Usuard in these words: Of Luthard, count of Cleves and confessor; Molanus in these: Of Luthard, count of Cleves and confessor, who founded the cloister of Wissel and of Neuss. Our manuscript Florarium also mentions him thus in a few words: Of Luthard, count. Likewise Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of Saints: At Cleves in lower Germany, St. Luthard, count: and Castellanus: At Cleves, St. Luthard, count. Fuller than the rest is the author of the German Martyrology, whose announcement in Latin has this sense: Likewise of St. Luthard, count of Cleves, sprung from a royal stock. He, while still a boy, shining before all as a rule of right living, so strove to please God by abstinence, chastity, obedience, patience, vigils and prayers, that all called him, layman though he was, a perfect monk. He built a church to the most blessed Virgin Mary, and there passed his life in all sanctity. He also founded a monastery at Wissel and at Neuss.

[21] and the eulogies of the Saint. With almost the same eulogy Peter Cratepolius adorns our Saint in his little book on the Saints of Germany. Werner Rolevinck in his Ancient Saxony — he, in Leibniz, volume 3 of the Writers of Brunswick, page 645, enumerating the Saints of Westphalia, says: Blessed Luthard also, count of Cleves, ennobles his land and his stock. Father Wilhelm Boyss of our Society, in a letter directed from Jülich to father Bolland on the XXVIII of November in the year 1642, thus advises: Concerning St. Luthard Pighius says that on account of his virtues, the purity and holiness of his life, he deserved not only to be adorned with an alliance with the stock of Charlemagne and with the imperial house, and to receive as wife the daughter of the emperor Arnulph; but also after his death to be enrolled by the authority of the Apostolic See among the number of the Saints. Certainly it is the chief ornament of so illustrious a house to have among the number of its own a Prince shining with sanctity, like fires lesser than the Moon. Thus he; Pighius, that is, without doubt in the book which is entitled Hercules prodicius. For Teschenmacher in the List of authors whom he used reckons Pighius in the Hercules prodicius, and where he treats of St. Luthard's marriage he employs plainly the same words. The same Teschenmacher probably followed Pighius, page 190, writing thus: By the authority of the Pope he was enrolled among the number of the Saints. Rhay expresses the matter thus: After his death he was enrolled in the Register of the Saints. Under what Pontiff, or by what rite, I have nowhere found.

[22] Concerning the Saint's burial and miracles the anonymous writer several times praised writes thus briefly: He is venerated at Wissel, where he was buried; He himself also more speedily completed the college of Wissel, not yet finished by his parents, in which he was buried with the glory of miracles, together with his wife and children. And it is believed that even today the head of St. Luthard is preserved in that same collegiate church of Wissel, as Teschenmacher and Rhay report; but with what cult he is there honoured, or with what solemnity his annual memory is kept, they do not indicate. Yet that he is venerated is sufficiently established: for thus the Reverend Father Johannes Michael Vanderketten, Prior of the Brigittines at Mariebloem in Kalkar, wrote to us in the year 1692: Half an hour distant from us is the chapter of Wissel, where their founder St. Luthard, count of Cleves, is venerated and rests. We are taught the same thing from the Antiphons, Versicles and prayer which Father Johannes Gamans, a distinguished helper of our Work, transcribed from a manuscript book of the Charterhouse of Cologne and transmitted to us, and which I here subjoin.

[23] Rise up, let us sing and rejoice with pious heart; May we deserve to be united to holy Luthard and to the Lamb. various indications

Antiphon.

Hail, holy Father, exalted minister of Christ, Renowned Luthard, loose the bonds of our sins. Foremost indeed in the sanctity of virtues, and likewise Rightly to be followed, a Master clearly showing the way. Truly a Servant of God, who spurned the deeds of the flesh, He shone with the holy deeds of holy virtues.

℞. Luthard was born of noble birth, but shone with nobler manners; while still a little boy he was made a sublime worshipper of the Godhead. ℣. Proving himself thereby the more happy and the more noble.

℞. This rich man cast away the sweet things of the world; Therefore he deserved to obtain the joys of heaven. ℣. He counts earthly things small indeed, and grasps at the heavenly.

Antiphon.

More splendid than Phœbus, glowing, most gentle Ruler, an ancient Before the merciful Christ, who founded this world, Constantly giving aid and health to the sick. O venerable count, preserve those who venerate thee. O Christ, who bestowest heavenly rewards upon thy Saints, Protect those who venerate the feasts of blessed Luthard.

℞. O imitable Man, and true Servant of Christ, who for Christ spurned the riches which he had in abundance. ℣. We believe therefore that we can be helped by his patronage.

℞. This prudent man … who offered himself first to God, and afterwards delivered over his goods to the Church. ℣. Mortifying his body with fastings, bestowing his wealth on the churches.

℞. Pray for thy servants ever devoted to thee, O chosen Confessor of Christ, who art a possessor of the kingdom. ℣. Bring thy household over to the same glory.

Antiphon.

Distinguished Consul, though now an exile from the body, Yet look with pity upon this devoted people. Saint Luthard, born of royal lineage, Served Christ, whose precepts he underwent, With devout breast, prudently and with his whole heart.

℞. A cultivator of justice, a true Lover of piety, The excellent Soldier of the Lord is lifted above the stars. ℣. Whose good life is blessed with a better end.

Collect.

O God, who hast granted us this most sacred day by the solemnity of blessed Luthard thy confessor, be propitiously present to the prayers of thy Church, that she who glories in his merits may be fortified by his suffrages. Through our Lord.

[25] and solemn cult, Hence indeed it is allowable to conjecture that the Saint's cult is both ancient and very solemn. Further, in what esteem the men of Cleves hold their Luthard, Peter à Streithagen abundantly expressed in the poem recited in number 1, to which I add another, composed, as Teschenmacher testifies, by Peter Verhagius, master of the school in the college of canons at Cleves.

The Ælian race, and the Ursinii, and the offspring of Charles Make thee renowned, divine count Luthard; But the piety which grew with thee from thy earliest years Has made thee more illustrious in the citadel of heaven. Therefore the praise which thou bearest from thy royal lineage, This thou repayest to it with much interest by thy virtue. From a sceptre-bearing race thou drawest thy lineage, along with thy brother Luthard, O Berengar, holy offspring. Cleves bore thee, the muse nourished thee, Callidice polished thee, Austrasia embraced thee as its bishop. By this twin offspring, O count Eberhard, thrice-third, thou shinest, Whom our fatherland rightly venerates as its tutelary saints.

[26] and among these Moreover the biographer, to be praised in number 30, speaks of St. Luthard as others are wont to speak of the particular patron of some people: certainly Johannes Melas, a poet of Cleves, indicates not obscurely that the church of Wissel is devoted to his patronage. The whole poem, inasmuch as it at the same time comprises most of the Saint's deeds, I transfer hither from the Annals of Teschenmacher, page 190 and following.

Perchance, reader, thou desirest to know who presides over the temple: Turn thine eyes hither, and read, and thou shalt be sure. Luthard, the greatest glory of the people of Cleves, Is venerated by us as Patron in this sacred house. He who was once the tenth illustrious count in order, Bearing the sceptre entrusted to his faith by the Lord. Who, born truly of a noble and chosen lineage, Was yet far nobler in piety. The renowned hero Eberhard, excelling in greatness of soul [*], Begot such Pledges for his subjects. The people of Cleves marvelled at him from his earliest years; Both his parents rejoiced greatly and deservedly.

He accustoms himself gladly, from tender years, to love as God. He fled sloth, which is assuredly a Lerna of evils, And bent over the sacred books by night and day. O how greatly, as a youth, he strove after true honours, Submitting his diligent neck to the yoke of the Lord! Holy, obedient to the fathers, and to the admonitions of his parents,

He set the best things first, guarding against all the worst. He spurned swollen pride, seeking the things of heaven; He spurned flatteries, and vain joys as well. He abstained from base things; neither ill-persuading lust, Nor crime, nor guile could penetrate his heart. Afflicting the tender limbs of his body by keeping vigil, He fled softness, and dainties with it. From the depth of his breast Luthard drew his sighs, Often entreating the Godhead for himself and for his own. He greatly despised the murmurs of windy fame, And strove duly to please the supreme God. He was here a lover of unmoved virtue continually; He scorned riches, and gave lavish gifts to the wretched. Keeping his subjects quiet in gentle peace, He honoured the sacred laws of the eternal God.

Than I shall tell all the deeds of so great a Man. Others build up bravely their splendid citadels, That they may render their names famous to their people: He, following better things, constructs venerable houses; He strives to have his name inscribed in the heavens. The land he received he turned to sacred uses, And built two temples together with his father. Here he wished men conspicuous for holy religion To speak hymn-sounding praises to Christ. In the temple which the men of Neuss possess, he ordered by his verse That a noble virgin should sing by her blood to the Trinity. The Hero had resolved to live unwed, apart from marriage-beds, But subject and parent forbade his purpose. He is bidden, after the vows, to lead a wedded life Beyond the life of his dear parent, ruling the roofs of Cleves. The Count deserved to take to himself in marriage, with such nobility, The daughter of the emperor Arnulph. Such things had his piety and his greatest deeds procured, The valour of his soldiering, the fame and the honour of the Man.

Conspicuous to many for a like religion. Count Baldwin builds for Christ the temple named of Wissel, A worthy offspring of Luthard. The same succeeds his Father, now released by death: His brother Richfrid rules the roofs of Twente. At length Luthard, called by Christ through death, Laid aside the spoils of the body, seeking the stars. Joined to the heavenly ones, he lives with Christ his Prince, And in the ethereal seats sees nothing but glad things. How happy he dies who rightly ministers to the Lord! How great the joys the Just man has prepared for him! Over this house, therefore, the hero Luthard presides, Who now reigns in the citadel of the flame-bearing heaven. Hence set before thyself, studious reader, a Patron, That thou mayest reproduce the count in manners and in faith: So after death shalt thou enter into the lofty hall, Gladly enjoying the joys of heaven forever.

[30] Thus far the aforesaid poet, who on account of this Work has obtained a place among the writers of Belgium in Valerius Andreas, in the following words: The rhythmical Life to be given here. Johannes Melas of Cleves described in verse the Life of Luthard, tenth count of Cleves, reckoned among the Saints; but in what age he flourished I have nowhere found. For the rest, that poem, as is plain, is not liable to those genealogical and chronological difficulties into which almost all those cast themselves who treated the Saint's deeds in prose, and for that reason we subjoin no notes to it; yet if anywhere it should seem to need elucidation, this may be drawn either from what was said before in the Commentary, or from the notes to be subjoined to the rhythmical Life, which we shall give from the Legend published in print at Louvain in the year 1485, and which we have collated with three manuscript copies, of which the first was taken from a manuscript of the library of the Charterhouse of Coblenz, and, after collation with a manuscript of the Charterhouse of Cologne, was sent to us by father Johannes Gamans in the year 1638; the second was communicated to us from a manuscript of the monastery of Böddeken by the Reverend Father Prior of the same, Ranutius Poppenschutz, in the year 1680; the third was supplied by the same Gamans in the year 1641, but without indication of the library from which it was drawn. The work is of unknown author and age; of its worth the reader himself will judge.

read with great spirit*

read I should number or I shall have numbered*

RHYTHMICAL LIFE

by an anonymous author,

From the Legend of Louvain, published in the year 1485 and collated with the manuscript copies of Coblenz, Cologne, and Böddeken.

Luthard, count and confessor, at Cleves, in a duchy of lower Germany (St.)

BHL Number: 4951

By an anonymous writer.

Luthard, the renowned count, The Saint's family, his manners Sprung from a royal stock, By as much as he shone among the powerful In the lineage of the flesh And in the power of the world, By so much did he ardently strive To have before the presence of God A conscience Clean and most pure. By the gift of divine grace, In his small boyhood He shone forth filled with such skill And such prudence, That already to his very parents, And to those who dwelt with them, He seemed a kind of pattern And little rule of living. For to his own parents, Who greatly rejoiced in him, He showed such obedience And such graciousness, That those who came to know him Would say to him in admiration: O happy merit of the father, Who has such a Son, From whom in truth he now hopes for Counsel and help!

And in all things most worthy Of so venerable an Offspring, And of so sweet a pledge, Ever hast thou served Christ Truly and without deceit. O glad womb of Bertha, Which bore such things, And pledges so consecrated! Blessed too the breasts Which that Boy had sucked, Who in his tender age Shines with such grace And excellence of manners. O Berengar, of Toledo ^a, Most worthy Prelate, In such a brother Rejoice most fully. After his boyhood

[3] What will that Boy be, If he shall come to full age? He will truly keep the law Of the soldiers of old And of the ancient counts, And perhaps renew it. Lo, from his very cradle The boy, illustrious and noble, Greatly beloved by all, And approved in all things, By the vigour of abstinence, And the flower of modesty, By the beauty of obedience, By the example of abstinence, Began to please the Lord, The most high King of kings: From whom already he holds The prize of the course and the reward of life. After the years of boyhood Luthard put on the seemly limbs Of adolescence, at which age he strove Under the habit of soldiering So to live for his Christ, That although he was a layman, Yet he was called by all A perfect monk. For according to the Word of the Lord, The things that were Cæsar's He rendered to Cæsar, and also to the Lord Those things which without doubt were his.

[4] Afflicting his body with vigils and his adolescence most piously And with fastings, He would pass the whole night In constant holy prayers; Often bending his knees, Frequently sighing, Wetting his eyes with weeping, Beating his breast with his palms. And himself and his works With most devout faith He thus commended to the Lord, Saying with a most pure heart: O Christ, Founder of all things, Just Requiter of deeds, Visit me thy Servant, And in visiting give me life. From the highest throne of heaven, Cherishing me with thy help, Look upon me, merciful Jesus, And receive my vows, Thou who sittest above with the Father, From whom thou art never parted. Deign, most merciful King, And most Holy of the Saints, By the power of thy right hand So to render me to thyself, That I may live acceptable And pleasing to thee.

[5] With these and the like passed Deeds and words The most holy confessor, Luthard the strenuous soldier, More attentively commended himself To the most high God with weeping, Both by day and by night; Yet more frequently by night. Him his renowned mother often Admonished, not to presume Upon such hard and such harsh things In so tender and small an age. His renowned father too Admonished him more often; Luthard, filled with the breath of Christ, With sweet speech Begged and entreated His father with his noble mother, That they should not upbraid him thus As though he were a youth, But should live piously and justly. The prudent father was overcome By the Son, and deservedly Obeyed the Boy, Whom she had borne in her womb, The happy and noble mother, Acceptable to Christ.

[6] He is prevented from the monastic life, for which he pants, Now to forsake his parents, Nay to leave the world behind, And shut himself within a cloister, Was his constant thought, That most valiant soldier of Christ, Luthard, most holy man, Burning to take upon him The most approved rule of the cloisters; He longed with his inmost heart, But what he bears in mind He cannot fulfil, the Lord Hindering such things, And preparing others. He is summoned by the Emperor, Under whose time he shone, Pippin ^b by name, From whom by no effort Could he ever depart, But that he should consent To the royal commands and prayers. Scarcely had this Man, by the Emperor's bidding, Taken up the name of consul ^c, When he gave him the island of Wissel, On which he built a church [d], In honour of the holy Saviour, And also of the Mother of God.

[7] and being increased in honours he devotes himself wholly Exalted with the insignia Of the consulship, Luthard Nobly and in haste returns To the halls of his fatherland, And by as much as there is now more freely A greater opportunity of living for God Than at first, By so much the more does Luthard, The renowned count, break his body With more discreet and unremitting Vigils and prayers. Now it pleases him to sell all, To spend what has been kept, To scatter what has been gathered, And to bestow it on the poor.

[8] upon pious works. The poor are refreshed, The lame, the deaf and the weak; The churches are restored By the pious work of Luthard. In such a Patron the people, The clergy and the army, The nobles thereat rejoice, And the ignoble rejoice together with them. All are sustained by his counsel And by his aid ^e. O venerable Count! O admirable Soldier! O most holy Patron! O most devout Father, Whom, since letters did not instruct him, The holy Spirit imbued ^f.

ANNOTATA.

d. In

the preliminary Commentary, §1, I discussed the college of Wissel as founded, or at least completed, by our Saint; as also that of Neuss, which the biographer does not here mention, but perhaps he embraced it in more general words, saying below in number 8, The churches are restored by the pious work of Luthard; and did he likewise found the illustrious college of virgins at Essen, and the other of men at Salenstadt? Certainly that these too were erected by our Saint is asserted by the anonymous collector of the Chronicles, cited in numbers 3 and 4 of our Commentary, by Teschenmacher, part 2 of the Annals, page 190, and by Rhay, On the illustrious Souls of Jülich, Cleves, etc., at the 15th day of September: He (Luthard, says the anonymous writer) together with Alfrid, bishop of Hildesheim, his nephew, planted two congregations of religious, one of men at Salenstadt, the other of noble virgins at Essen. Nevertheless the bare assertion of those authors does not suffice for me to agree with them, chiefly because among others I find the erection of the said colleges constantly attributed to Altfrid alone. The Acts of this holy Prelate were illustrated among us in volume III of August, from page 210, and on the same occasion mention was made of the colleges of Essen and Salenstadt, but no instrument was produced from which one might gather that count Luthard was Altfrid's partner in founding them. There appears indeed in the Diploma of the foundation of Assinde or Essen, given in the same place, a Luithard, but only as a witness; nor was he our Saint, but, as is expressly added, Luthard bishop of Paderborn.

elsewhere most beloved*